On 22 Aug, 19:36, Moonraker wrote:
I have a fairly large area of my garden that is uncultivated poor grass.
I would like to make it into a wild meadow, however it seems to me that
after a few weeks it is growing a lovely crop of gorse, which I do not
want. what action should or can I take *to make a decent wild meadow?
any help would be appreciated. I cannot afford to spend a fortune on
wild flower seed, surely nature should be able to cope? Al;so, at the
moment it is fenced off with rabbit proof fencing, which if necessary I
would be quite happy to remove, should I?
--
Residing on low ground in North Staffordshire

What you see on the TV is not a wildflower meadow. (See below.)

You must mow your grass and take the grass cuttings
(and thus the nutrients) away. This needs to be done once a year
after flower seeds have fallen. The grass wil be weakened by this
treatment. You can't do this with a domestic mower, the grass will be
too tall and tussocky.
The alternative is not to have it grazed. Animals crap, putting the
nutrients back into the ground which defeats the object.
You will get "wild fowers" OK but probably the weeds growing in your
garden, ie loads of thistles, nettles, buttercups, dandelions, docks,
sorrel, clover etc. Very few of the "pretty" flowers.
If you want to know what will grow/appear, have a walk on your patch
and
look at the weeds there. You will just get lots more of the same.
Makes sense don't it?

These "Wild flower meadows" you see on the TV are complete Bull S***.
They are no more wild than your vegetable plot.
The flowers aren't wild either being from imported seed. Most of the
seed you buy is from E. Europe and is actually damaging to our
environment.


If they were to be benificial to the environment, there would be no
planting of non-local seeds/plants. People in the UK are too idle to
collect our wild flower seeds, a very tedious job. You could collect
your own locally.


So, either you damage our environment or you just get a weedy patch
that's benificial but not like the crap you see on the TV.


You need to realise that 90% of TV gardening is complete BS.
If you need advice, speak to a local person that's doing what you
want
and is manifestly successful at it.


If they're planting seeds in a "Wild Flower Meadow", they are
failures.